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A Jewish Guide to the Florida Primary

South Beach ballots

by
Marc Tracy
January 31, 2012
South Florida resident Jack Klompus.(Seinfeld)
South Florida resident Jack Klompus.(Seinfeld)

Number of candidates actually contesting: Four.

Their names: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum.

Percentage of state population that is Jewish: 3.4.

Where that ranks: Fifth out of 50. (Can you guess the top four? Answer after the jump.)

Jewish issues? Not hugely, and there isn’t much disagreement: At the most recent debate, Romney gave his Israel spiel, and Gingrich responded, “Gov. Romney is exactly right.” Of course, there is Romney’s Great Kosher Food Nursing Home Scandal, which actually is neither great nor scandalous nor Romney’s.

Who’s going to win? Mitt Romney, almost certainly.

Does it matter? Yes. Newt needs this one, bad.

Open or closed primary? Closed.

So, your Democratic grandmother isn’t going to accidentally vote for Ron Paul? No butterfly-ballot concerns.

Proportional or winner-take-all? Winner-take-all. That’s why Santorum long ago gave up and Paul didn’t waste much time (since he is all about accumulating delegates over the long haul).

Number of delegates to the Republican National Convention: 50.

Number of delegates to the Republican National Convention it would have if it hadn’t moved up its primary against party rules: 100.

Democracy! Sigh.

(The Democratic Party did the exact same thing, right? Yes. They’re both hypocrites.)

What’s next? Nevada, February.

So, more Jews! Yup.


Percentage-wise, the leaders are New York (8.4), New Jersey (5.7), Massachusetts (4.2), and the great state of Maryland (4.1).

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.